From Ninja to Normal
by Zia-k9
Summary: When Quinn's parent go to Hawaii they leave her in the care of an old friend, an old ninja friend that is. And Kakashi has a favor to ask: he wants Quinn to teach the leaf village Genin plus Skikamaru (and Gaara and company) to act like normal people. This wasn't how Quinn planned Freshman year, but she's not a quitter and maybe she can teach these ninja to be normal. Except Naruto
1. Ninja in the House

"Bye Mom. Bye Dad. Have fun in Hawaii. I know I love you too. I'll behave I promise. XOXO take lots of pictures love ya." Quinn ended the call and placed her phone on the counter. Parents in Hawaii plus strange old friend of theirs to babysit her wasn't exactly the perfect recipe for Freshman year.

_Well that doesn't mean I'm giving up. I don't give up easily. This year will be perfect even if I have to sneak out every night behind the old guys back. _

"When's he going to get here?" Quinn groaned. Her parents had said she could order pizza for dinner, but she'd waited for the guy to get here and now she was starving.

_Get here, get here, get here. _Quinn willed.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

"Wha?" Quinn lifted her head off the counter and realized she'd fallen asleep. She checked her phone clock: 12:00AM. Now she was really hungry.

_bangbangbangbangbangbangbang BAM! _

It sounded like a little kid was trying to beat the door down.

"I'm coming!" Quinn yelled and walked through the living room as soon as her hand touched the door knob the knocking started again. Quinn threw the door open and the kid that was knocking on the door fell into the living room.

"What? Who are you?" Quinn demanded. If he was here to rob her, she'd punch his lights out! "What are you wearing?" she blurted. Quinn was exactly fashion oriented, but she knew better then to wear an orange tracksuit with blue sandals like it was some kind of fashion statement.

The boy stood up and she noticed the weird stripes on his cheeks, like cat whiskers.

"I am Naruto Uzumaki and I am starving!"

Before Quinn could respond another head poked through the doorway. She'd been standing behind the door in case the had to shut it quickly and hadn't noticed anyone else outside. And this guy was definitely a bandit, he had a mask on the lower half of his face and a headband covering one of his eyes.

"Hello, Quinn. Sorry I'm late, we ran into some traffic on the way here," he said cheerfully.

"What? That's not how it happened at all!" Naruto screamed.

"I'm Kakashi, your babysitter and I hope you don't mind I brought a few of my students. Your parents said it would be alright."

Kakashi stepped in followed by two dozen teenagers around Quinn's age.

_What? My parents said this was okay? My parents know this guy? _

"Um, I better call my parents and let them know you here," Quinn said nervously.

"Alright, I'll order pizza. Your parents said you like sausage, is that okay?"

Quinn streaked the kitchen, grabbed her phone of the counter, and barricaded herself in her room without replying. After locking herself in her closet she feverishly dialed her Mom's number.

"Come on, come on! Pick up!" Quinn muttered shooting nervous glances at the door.

"Hello?" Quinn's mom answered after the billionth ring.

"Mom, some weird guy is here with a bunch of freaky teens and he says he's my babysitter. What should I do?" Quinn asked.

"What? Is his name Kakashi?"

"Yeah-wait, this is the babysitter?"

"Yeah, I know he's weird, but he's from Japan so give him a break."

"No Mom, it's more then that. He wears this weird ski mask and headband and he has this kid with an orang jumpsuit and-"

"Alright Quinn, you got me. He's also a ninja."

This was some kind of sick joke. This guy was no ninja. Her parents didn't know ninja and besides they weren't real.

"Trust me, Quinn, he's a ninja. We met him on our honeymoon trip to Japan. If you read any of his books I'll kill you. but he's really a nice man."

"Oooooooooookay."

"Love you dear."

"Mom, wait-" but her mom had already hung up the phone.

Suddenly weirdo Kakashi appeared in her room in a cloud of smoke. Quinn fanned it away and choked.

"The pizza's here," the 'ninja' said brightly.

"Get out of my room I've never been so violated in my entire life-wait, it is?" Quinn's stomach growled and the smell of sausage pizza wafted up the her. So she did what she was good at and made a split second decision. She'd go with it.

"This is Gaara, Temari, and Kankuro." Creepy, scary, weird. "Shikamaru, Ino, and Chouji." Did he lick a car battery for that sort of hair? Maybe cool, but dressed kind of like a mummy. A little overweight. "Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura." Orange freak from the door. Maybe a little cute? Pink hair? That matches her outfit? "Kiba, Akamaru, Shino, and Hinata." Weird Jacket, dog, creep. shy. "Tenten, Neji, and Rock Lee." Weird hair, long hair and crazy looking eyes, nerd.

"Do you think you can teach them to act like normal people?" Kakashi asked after the introductions.

Instead of answering I repeatedly hit my head on the counter, but not for very long because the pizza smelled good.


	2. Sand Buriel in the Bedroom

Abbott

Ackerman

Aldaine

Alvarez

Anders

Babcock

Bachelor

Bagwell

Bailey

Cameron

Camp

Canterbury

Carey

Carlisle

Cruso

Daily

Dacanay

Dean

Dreygon

East

Eaton

England

Espinoza

Evans

Farmer

Farris

Faulkner

Feliciano

Ferguson

Gall

Gallegos

Galvan

Gamble

Garcia

Gretzky

Hackett

Haddock

Haines

Hernandez

Ingalls

Inman

Iver

Jaquez

Jarrett

Jarvis

Keefe

Keifer

Kendall

Larson

Latimer

Laughlin

Lawrence

Maestas

Magnuson

Majors

Nixon

Noble

North

O'Toole

Osborne

Oswald

Perez

Petty

Pevensey

Paasch

Pfeiffer

Phelps

Polanski

Quaid

Quaker

Radford

Radner

Ralston

Rodrigues

Rabenstein

Rosati

Sadler

Sanchez

Searle

Sedgwick

Taheny

Thatcher

Torres

Townsend

Tredway

Tremaine

Urban

Usher

Van Zandt

Vladamire

Webster

Weinstein

Yeager

Yeats

Young

Zedler

Zimmerman

Zuniga

Zabinski

Pasted from .

One thing Quinn new, the first part of fitting in was looking the part. If you looked normal people would look right over your quirky behavior. But you weren't going to look right over these guys, not in a million years.

"Okay, we're going to fix you guys up today. So we're all going shopping for new clothes."

"What?!" All the ninja yelled in Quinn's face. So maybe telling a bunch of ninja they had to go shopping wasn't something you did over breakfast.

"I'm gonna give you a list so when we go shopping you know exactly what you're supposed to be getting." Quinn announced. She decided she was going to be organized at the very least. Taking a bunch of ninja shopping was going to be chaotic and not the cool TV show with monsters kind. "Who wants to go first?"

No one? Quinn wasn't surprised.

"Okay then, how about you? Not you! You with the um...squash on your back," Quinn said picking out the first distinctive feature she saw.

The redhead kid glared at Quinn, but sullenly followed her back to her room. She thought she could remember Kakashi saying his teammates were his older siblings or something.

"So what's your name?" she asked.

"Gaara."

"Why don't you take off that big gourd, what's in there anyway?"

"Sand."

Quinn groaned internally. Ninja certainly weren't the...most understandable people.

"Take it off then."

Gaara glared at her, but reluctantly obeyed laying the giant squash down on her bed. When he wasn't looking she tried to pick it up. It weighed a ton! how did he carry that around?

"Okay, what's with the eyepaint?" Quinn asked. She licked her finger and tried to smudge some of it away.

Gaara snarled and pushed her away. "It's not paint, you can't rub it off so stop licking me!"

"Well what is it then?"

"Just marks, they don't come off."

"I see. " Quinn leaned against her bed with a finger on her lips, thinking. How do you erase 'marks' that you were just, what, born with?

Quinn dashed to her bathroom on a streak of genius and came back with her makeup. She pulled out some foundation and swiped it across Gaara's eyelids. Just before he pulled his head back.

"What are you doing?" he demanded.

"Just covering up your marks." Quinn stood back with her hands on her hips to admire the affect. Gaara covered his face with his hand.

"No, no, you look normal," Quinn said trying to push his hand away. "It looks good. Hang on a second, do you have pupils? Or eyebrows? How do you see without pupils? Ya think maybe if you got more sleep you wouldn't those raccoon-eye marks?"

Quinn licked her finger and tried to rub of the red character on Gaara's forehead. "Is this a mark too?"

"No! it's a tattoo it doesn't come off either!" Gaara screeched.

"Who let you get a tattoo when you were what? Fifteen?"

Gaara didn't answer. Quinn felt something tickle her ankle she looked down, there was sand all around her feet. She looked behind her. There was a wall of sand behind her! She watched frozen as it closed in trying to surround her. She felt it slither up her legs and she jumped into the air shrieking. The sand closed in faster.

"Sand coffin."

"He-" her voice caught in her throat. The sand was closing in. It parted and she could see Gaara grinning like a maniac, he was controlling the sand somehow!

She jumped through the gap and grabbed him, pinning his arms down, before just as he tried to slip out the door. The sand tried to slip around her and she pressed her face against his back before it could get in her mouth.

The sand pressed around them trying to find a way around Gaara to get to Quinn, then stopped.

She shivered, it felt like the sand was still snaking through her hair and brushing against her skin.

Quinn looked up, Gaara was staring at her with is eyes bugging out of his head. Was it the fact that his marks were covered up that made him look like that? Quinn realized she was holding onto him so hard it was cutting off the circulation in her arms was getting cut off.

"Can you breathe?" she asked. Gaara nodded still staring with his mouth open. "Good, because I want you to be nice and consious while I YELL AT YOU FOR SCARING ME TO DEATH AND TRYING TO KILL ME!" Quinn screamed as her near heart attack state turned into anger. "What is wrong with you? I'm doing exactly what your sensei told me to do and your trying to freaking off me! What's your problem? Are you mental? Do you have issues? All I know is, I'm not staying anywhere by myself with you again! Got that? I'd trust a stalker more then I trust you and you live in my freaking house! Anything you'd like to say for yourself?"

"You survived my sand coffin. No one has done that before except Lee." He seemed a little shell-shocked to Quinn, maybe her lecture had hit home. "You should be dead." Maybe not.

"Oh is that it?" Quinn flicked his forehead. Gaara jerked his head back. "Well you should be sorry, but I guess we're both having adverse reactions to that you freaking weirdo!"

Quinn suddenly realized that she was still holding onto Gaara, really tightly. She let go of him pushing him away.

"Now get out of here I don't care if you look like an idiot for the rest of your life, you are getting no more help from me!"

Gaara just stood there like an idiot staring at her.

"Get out of here!" She shoved Gaara through the doorway.

When he left she locked the door behind her and went back to the living room. The ninja were watching the discovery channel and Kakashi was reading. Quinn was starting to think that's all he ever did.

"Who's strong and feels like helping me move something?" Silence. "Okay, um, you there with the dog, you can help. I want you to help me dump Gaara's sand in the sandbox out back. He tried to give me a sand burial and for safety's sake I just want to get rid of the temptation. "

Suddenly Quinn had everyone's eyes.

"Gaara tried to….and you didn't get….how?" the guy that looked like he fell asleep on a blackberry pie asked in disbelief.

What were these guys so worked up about? It hadn't been that difficult, it had been more of an instinct actually. If the sand wasn't going to attack Gaara she just had to get so close that the sand couldn't work between them. Uncomfortable? Yes. Better then death? You bet!

Quinn decided she would put on a tough face to impress these guys.

"Yeah, it wasn't that hard." She shrugged and some of the ninja's mouths actually fell open. "He's such a push over, I mean he's such a psycho after all. Half gone and half going." Quinn forced a laugh and spun her finger at the side of her head. She turned to leave and motioned for the dog-kid to follow her.

She started back to her bedroom and saw Gaara. He had been standing in the hallway listening the whole time. Quinn felt sorry as soon as she saw his face. For someone who had been trying to kill her he looked like a sad little kid and it made Quinn feel like a bully.

Doggie guy slammed into her because she'd stopped so abruptly and Gaara quickly turned down the hallway and disappeared.

"What was that all about?" he demanded.

"I'm not really sure," Quinn said faintly.


	3. Fashion like a Traffic Cone

The next day Quinn led the way to the mall that was a short walk and a bus ride away. She was a little worried about taking the ninja on a bus and they wanted to walk, but she couldn't walk that far.

She was squished between Kiba and Neji on the bus. Neji kept staring at the other people on the bus and muttering things about them.

"That kid doesn't really want ice cream, he just wants attention."

"Would you be quiet?" Kiba whined after the fourth comment. He wasn't in a good mood because they'd left Akamaru at home. Quinn promised they'd get Akamaru some dog things soon and that had just put him in a worse mood.

After the uncomfortable bus ride they walked the fifteen minutes to the mall. Kakashi and Quinn had lent the people with the more unbelievable outfits some clothes for the outing, so besides the fact that some of the shorter boys were drowning in their clothes they looked basically normal.

"Okay guys, here's the rules. We use the buddy system so we need partners, count'em one two. Pick whoever, I don't care, but we have an odd number so someone gets to be partners with me. Congrats to whoever that is."

The final pairings were: Rock Lee and Naruto, Sakura and Ino, Shikamaru and Choji, Temari and Tenten, Neji and Sasuke, Kiba and Kankuro, and Shino and Hinata leaving Quinn partnered with...Gaara.

Of all the rotten luck. It just had to he Gaara didn't it? Quinn groaned internally.

"Sorry, we just thought you'd handle him the best and besides he kind of scares the rest of us," Sakura said quickly before leaving with Ino.

Naruto wandered off with Lee following him. Hopefully to a clothing store, but Quinn doubted it. He had been the least open to fashion advice, she was going to have to check on him.

The group quickly split up and started wandering through the mall. Soon only Quinn and Gaara were left. She wished Kakashi-Sensei hadn't already had the normal clothes he'd bought back when he'd first met her parents. She could have paired Gaara with him instead.

"So, um, wherever you want to go first," Quinn said hesitantly.

Gaara looked around, then started walking. Quinn didn't bother to check where they were going and followed a few cautious feet behind him. She didn't want to get too close in case he suddenly went ballistic. He wasn't as scary with make-up covering the black rings around his eyes, but still, she wasn't taking chances.

Gaara finally stepped into a store. Quinn, who was too busy trying to be unnoticeable to check which one it was, followed him inside.

_How's he gonna hurt me? He doesn't have his sand anymore and he wouldn't make a scene here...would he?_

What if he did? If he did some police officer would arrest him and he'd go to jail for assault. Somehow Quinn didn't think anyone would be happy if that happened.

_Fine. I can't let that happen then._

So far everything was going great. Gaara was doing what he was supposed to and he hadn't shown any signs of attacking anything. Quinn's phone vibrated in her pocket she pulled it out.

"Heyo, Quinn here."

"Quinn." It was her mom. "How have you been? We haven't been able to call you because of spotty cell service and we just wanted to check in."

At least they had an excuse for forgetting they had a daughter that they'd left in the care of a crazy ninja Sensei. "I'm fine mom."

"What about Kakashi? You said he brought some of his student didn't you? How are they?"

"Kakashi's good, yo. He doesn't do much except read and break up fights, but that's cool. He leaves the running of things to me 'cause he wants me teach these freaks how to be normal."

"Did you make any friends?"

_Wow, mom, just wow. _"Nah, I kind of keep a teacher attitude to these guys."

"Don't you like any of the other girls?"

"Two of them only talk about Sasuke. One is pretty quiet and I haven't seen the other one much."

"Do you like any of the boys?"

"Oh my gosh, Mom! No! Of course not, they're all weird."

"Do you even try?"

"I got in a fight with one."

"Quinn!"

"Anyway, you guys having fun in Hawaii?" Quinn asked in a desperate attempt to change the subject.

"Yes, it's very beautiful here. We're getting some great pictures, I'll e-mail you some later."

"Okay, good that. Love ya Mom say heyo to Dad for me and have a good time."

Quinn hung up and put her phone back in her pocket. She stood on her tiptoes and tried to find Gaara's standout red hair. She didn't see it right off so she wandered around. After she'd wandered through the whole store a few times she started to doubt he was still around. A small finger of fear slid down her spine and she realized she was twisting her chain.

When she was little she used to twirl her hair when she was worried, scared, nervous, or thinking. To break the habit she'd cut her hair short, only to realize a few weeks later that she had subconsciously started twisting the only thing that was almost constantly around: the chain she had for her wallet. It was better then having the sissy habit of twirling her hair though so she'd stuck with it.

Gaara?" She called softly. "Heyo, G-man, are you here?" She yelled when she didn't get an answer the first time. "Not good, not good at all," she muttered twisting the chain around her finger. "Where could he be?"

Quinn yanked her phone back out of her pocket and dialed home. Kakashi let it ring so long Quinn thought he wasn't going to pick up.

"Hello?" he asked drowsily.

"Kakashi! Great, you picked up. I was worried you wouldn't."

"I wasn't going to, but I thought I might as well. Why are you yelling?" he asked.

"Because I can't find Gaara anywhere!" Quinn screamed in frustration.

"How hard did you look?" He paused so long she thought he fell asleep. "Well if you really need to, go ask Neji to help you. His byakugon should be able to find Gaara. Now are you done?" He sounded like this conversation was boring him and he couldn't wait for it to end. Like Quinn was talking about some petty girl thing.

"Whatever." Quinn hung up and jammed her phone back in her pocket. Kakashi could be one of the most annoying people in the world sometimes with his annoying habit of not taking things seriously enough.

She power walked to the store Neji and Sasuke were supposed to be shopping at. When she got there they were almost done, a testament to how slowly it took for her and Gaara to get started.

"Hey Neji, I lost Gaara and Kakashi said you would be able to find him with your...bakugan?"

"'My Byakugan. Yes, I should be able to. Let me see. Byakugan!" The veins next to Neji's eyes popped out as he concentrated on whatever he was doing. It made him look kind of scary and ferocious. Quinn wondered if that was why his eyes were colorless because of his Bekangengon whatever.

"Do you see him?" Quinn asked nervously. "Is he mugging any old ladies?" she half joked.

"No, but...he looks like he's looking for something..." Neji said staring into space.

"Okay, cut that out people are staring, but where is he? I wish I could see." Quinn twisted her chain around her finger impatiently.

"We're done here so we can take you to him," Sasuke offered nonchalantly.

"Okay, that sounds great," Quinn replied calming down a little. Now that Gaara was all but found she wasn't as worried. Plus Sasuke's condescending tone rubbed her the wrong way. He could talk to Sakura that way all he wanted, but he couldn't talk to her that way!

"Okay, that'd be great," she replied sarcastically.

So Neji led the way back to the store Gaara and Quinn had started out at. "What? You were here this whole time?" Quinn exploded. "I can't believe this," she muttered then asked, "did you at least get some clothes picked out?" Gaara nodded. "Okay then, let's check out I want to make sure Naruto is on task for once in his life." Quinn approved the clothes Gaara had picked out, just jeans and t-shirts, nothing fancy, and then they went in search of Naruto and Lee.

"What do you mean? What's wrong with this?" Naruto yelled after Quinn vetoed another one of his fashion choices.

"Everything down to the fact that the whole outfit is orange!" Quinn exclaimed. "Are you colorblind?"

"No!"

"Then pick something that actually looks good together! Sasuke, Neji, Lee, even Gaara didn't have a problem. Why can't you pick out a decent outfit?"

Naruto shoved his hands into his pockets and sulked. Neji and Lee had gone to get haircuts, but Gaara and Sasuke had to watch Naruto struggled with fashion.

"Yeah you loser. Try and learn something for once in your life," Sasuke remarked with a smirk.

"Why don't you let me pick something," Quinn suggested hopefully.

"No! I'm going to figure this out if it's the last thing I do, believe it!" Naruto yelled pumping his fist in the air.

"We'll be here all day," Sasuke groaned. Quinn nodded in agreement.

"Y'know what, I should probably see if any of the other groups are done. I'll be back, try not to let him pick anything bad and definitely don't let him buy anything," Quinn told Sasuke before slipping away from the unfortunate group.

Sakura and Ino hadn't had any trouble picking out clothes. In fact, they'd picked out cuter outfits then Quinn did, but Quinn wasn't really into looking cute. Quinn made a metal note to consult them when school dances came around. Shikamaru and Choji hadn't had too much trouble either, Quinn made a few changes, but for the most part they'd done well. Kankuro and Kiba needed a little more help. Quinn and Kiba made a compromise on a hoodie with fur inside the hood, better then his old jacket for sure. Kankuro looked a little off without his face-paint. But for someone who lived in a dessert he was sort of obsessed with black.

_Doesn't that get really hot in the dessert?_ Quinn wondered.

But they finally settled on some dark clothes that looked pretty good. Hinata hadn't needed much help, but Shino needed a few (read: a lot) of pointers. He was a little creepy with his weird little sunglasses, Quinn forbade him from wearing them ever again. Tenten and Temari hadn't done to badly. Tenten had picked some tomboyish clothes that Quinn could appreciate. Temari had picked something less Quinn-friendly.

"No, no, no, you cannot buy something that short. I forbid it!" This comment started a heated fight that lasted for fifteen tense minutes. Finally it ended in Quinn and Temari making a compromise. Quinn hated compromises because it made her feel like she was losing. She also hated to lose.

Quinn reluctantly took the group back to the store she'd left Naruto in minus Shikamaru because he needed a haircut too. Sasuke glared at Quinn when he saw her obviously not too happy about being left with Naruto.

_Oh, well. He can just suck it up. He's on Naruto's team anyway so he should be used to stuff like this,_ Quinn thought irritably.

Sakura and Ino immediately parked themselves as near to Sasuke as possible and started competing for his unenthusiastic attention. It didn't take a genius to figure out he didn't really care too much about either of them or the attention.

Naruto stepped out of the dressing room.

"Wow, Naruto. That looks pretty good," Hinata said shyly.

"Ya, think?" he asked turning around to get a better look at himself. "Hinata thinks I look great," Naruto informed Quinn smugly.

"Oh, please. Hinata is new to this too, she doesn't know the first thing-what I'm trying to say is, that's not as good as it might seem," Quinn said diplomatically trying not to hurt Hinata's feelings while trying to tell Naruto is was a fashion faux pas at the same time. It wasn't a particularly inspiring attempt.

Quinn's phone vibrated in her pocket and she answered it while Naruto chose something else.

"Heyo, Quinn here."

"Are you guys almost done? You've been gone nearly all day." This was as close to annoyance Kakashi ever achieved. He was too laid back to put much effort into it. Sometimes Quinn wondered how he ever became a ninja. If there were any requirements or tests she couldn't imagine Kakashi passing them.

"Yeah, we're just waiting for Naruto because he can't pick anything out that doesn't make him look like a traffic cone and won't let anyone help him." Quinn gave Naruto's back a long death stare. If looks could kill this one might have.

"Okay, good luck." With that piece of advice Kakashi abruptly hung up.

_Probably didn't want to get involved in whatever chaos Naruto has going on down here. It'd stress him out too much,_ Quinn thought bitterly sliding her phone back into her pocket.

Naruto came back with another outfit that would make him look like a carrot.

"Okay, enough is enough I'm helping you whether you want it or not so suck it up!" Quinn yelled. She steered Naruto back to the clothing racks and reached yet another compromise: Naruto could have a few orange clothes if he let Quinn pick out the rest.

"What d'ya say we get some ice cream and a movie," Quinn suggested in an upbeat tone on the bus ride home.

"What kind of movie?" Sakura asked at the same time Naruto asked, "What kind of ice cream?"

**Warning, short author's note**

**Hey guys I hope you are liking this and if you have any ideas of something normal Quinn and the ninjas should do. Please review, do it for Naruto and his horrible fashion sense. And I also don't own Naruto, or any of the ninja, just Quinn and sorry my grammar is terrible. I'm working on it. **

**End short author's note**


	4. Pancakes, Food Pills, and Dinosaurs

In celebration of the success of yesterday's shopping trip Kakashi made pancakes and bacon for breakfast.

"I could hug you right now," Quinn muttered taking a big bite.

"This is really good! Who knew you could cook this well?" Naruto exclaimed spitting food everywhere.

"Gosh Naruto, you're so disgusting," Sakura said glaring at him out or the corner of her eye.

"I know! Would it kill you to use manners sometimes?" Ino added.

Naruto glared at them for a few seconds before stuffing his face again. Quinn noticed Hinata gave him a small smile, but he wasn't looking so only Quinn noticed.

"This is really good Kakashi-Sensei!" Choji said.

"It's a good thing he made a lot, otherwise there wouldn't be enough for the rest of us," Shikamaru said with a half-smile.

"No kidding," Kankuro whined.

"I've decided that it's time to get back on track with your ninja training, but in a more normal way," Kakashi started after everyone had settled down. Since the table wasn't big enough for everyone some people were parked in the living room or at the island in the kitchen. A few ninja whined, but Naruto and a few others looked excited at the prospect.

"Hey! What do you mean normal?" Naruto demanded after the last part sank in.

"I mean, today we'll be jogging." Kakashi said putting more bacon on the skillet.

"What?!" everyone yelled at the same time.

"That's not real ninja training! That's just some stupid excuse to get rid of us so you can read!" Naruto yelled across the table.

"Be quiet Naruto! How dare you speak back to your Sensei," Lee admonished Naruto, then turned to Kakashi. "I am ready to do whatever training you have in store for us, Kakashi-Sensei." Lee: the perfect teacher's pet...or sensei's pet...whichever.

Most of the ninja rolled their eyes, including Quinn, although a few nodded enthusiastically.

So that's how Quinn found herself running down the nearby jogging path with a bunch of ninja an hour later.

"How far...did...he say...we have...to...go?" Quinn asked Hinata as they climbed a hill struggling to talk and breath at the same time.

"Only nine miles," she answered cheerfully. Maybe she was trying to raise Quinn's spirits, too bad it didn't work.

"How far...have we...gone?" she asked, dreading the answer.

"A mile." It surprised Quinn that Hinata could seem upbeat when faced with statistics like that. Quinn felt like if she ran another mile she'd drop down dead. Naruto however was flipping around off of trees and doing all sorts of stupid ninja tricks.

What a show-off.

"You don't look very good, sort of like a wilted plant," Sakura commented after a countless amount of running.

"I...don't feel...very good...either," Quinn gasped between deep breathes. "But...I'll...be fine."

Some of the ninja around her were shooting her sidelong glances every once in a while like they were trying to make sure she was still alive. Quinn wasn't going to give up though, she was going to run as far as those ninja if it killed her!

"Here, I have something that might help you," Kiba offered holding out a small red pill.

"What's that?...Drugs?" Quinn asked suspiciously.

"It's a food pill, it'll give you energy. Akamaru and I take them all the time. By the looks of it, you need one."

Quinn looked down at Akamaru running next to Kiba, he didn't even look tired. He was panting a little, but the puppy could keep up better then she could!

"Well...okay." Quinn took the pill and popped it in her mouth, swallowing it. Almost instantly she felt a burst of energy, she felt like she could keep running for hours. "Thanks, whoever invented this did something right."

"Yeah, I think that all the time," Kiba said grinning. Without his face triangles and furry jacket he didn't look half bad. Quinn grinned back in spite of herself.

With the food pill Quinn had enough energy to keep running and keep up a conversation with Kiba and Akamaru without gasping like a fish.

"Since Akamaru is so good at all this agility stuff maybe we should sign him up for a dog show. He'd probably win. What breed is he?" Quinn asked looking down at the little puppy.

"Y'know what, I'm not sure. I'd have to ask my mom. She gave him to me so she'd know. I think he's just some runt one of her big dogs had in their litter though."

"He sort of looks like a beagle," Quinn said looking Akamaru over a few times. "He sort of has the right ears and stuff for it."

Akamaru yipped and jumped into Kiba's arms. For a small dog he could jump really high, not to mention run farther and faster then she could. Quinn suddenly began to feel a little light headed, but shook it off and kept running.

"Are you okay?" Kiba asked concern replacing his smile.

"Yeah, why?" Quinn asked. Her voice was thin and breathy and she didn't know why.

"You're white as a sheet and-OH GOSH!"

Quinn opened her eyes groggily. She couldn't remember deciding to ride a horse, in fact, she couldn't even remember getting out of bed. She raised her head and something yipped in her ear.

"Ouch, that hurt," she murmured rubbing her hand against her ear half-consciously. It felt like she was sitting in a fog that was making it hard to see or hear or concentrate. "Where am I?" she asked waving her hand in front of her face trying to clear the fog. She stopped moving and someone gently put her on the ground.

"Are you okay? What happened?" Concerned faces filled her vision blocking out the sky. Grass prickled against her arms and legs.

"Who are you?" Quinn asked fuzzily. "And go away, I want to sleep. I just wan't to sleep." She rolled onto her side clumsily putting her hands under her head and closed her eyes.

"No! Quinn, you can't fall asleep. Wake up! Get up!"

Someone was yelling at her and shaking her shoulder, but it all seemed so distant and far away. So unimportant. She felt like she was floating on a cloud, high above everything else. Voices that sounded like they were trying to talk to her through water kept trying to disturb her and wake her up.

"No, no, jus' go 'way," she said weakly, limply waving her hand to shoo them away. "I jus' wanna sleep. Go 'way, don' bother me. I jus' wan' sleep." She curled up in a ball and ignored them.

Quinn heard people talking in low voices when she woke up. She opened her eyes and saw Kankuro talking to some lady in nurse scrubs.

"What happened?" She asked drowsily. She was lying in a bed with crinkly sheets that was pushed against the wall.

The nurse lady turned around. "Oh, good you're awake! Here dear, drink this. It's just some water to make you feel better. You're a tad dehydrated, that's why you feel so terrible."Quinn took the water from the lady and drank it. She was thirstier then a camel. "Not too fast, dear, slowly now-that's the way."

Quinn finished off the glass and sat up. Only to fall back against the wall as a wave of dizziness overcame her. She say up more carefully and she didn't get so nauseous.

"You just worked yourself too hard dear, so I just go home and relax for the rest of the day, okay?" the nurse asked cheerfully.

"Sure, I won't be doing much. I feel like a sack of bricks," Quinn said thickly.

"Good. Now I'll just call those nice young men back and they can take you home."

"Wha?" Quinn asked, but the nurse was already gone. Soon Quinn was surrounded by the ninja.

"Are you okay?"

"What happened?"

"How come you fell over like that?"

"How do you feel?"

The questions came fast and furious. It was starting to make Quinn's head hurt.

"Oh gosh. Like a sack of bricks. I guess I can't run as fast as you guys." Quinn smiled weakly.

"Hey, Kakashi's going to wonder why we got back so soon. So maybe we should just see the sights and blow off our time for a while," Naruto suggested. "In a relaxing way, of course."

Quinn grinned, "Of course."

"Okay now. You can't bring dogs into these kinds of places-" Kiba made a disgusted sound in the back of his throat and Akamaru growled. "-so just make sure you hide him and he stays quiet."

"No problem, right Akamaru?" Akamaru answered in the form of a confident yip and burrowed into Kiba's hoodie. "No problem, he'll keep a low profile."

"Okay, good." Quinn spoke a little louder so everyone else could here, "Now, you have to behave. Take a cue from me and the people around you if you don't know what's considered normal. I promise we'll only go to the fun places, no art museums or anything like that so it shouldn't be a problem if you act out a little. Right now we're headed to the Science Center. Trust me it's funner then it sounds, there's this big animatronic dinosaur that roars and stuff and a giant marble machine with giant marbles." Quinn looked at the blank faces surrounding her. "None of you know what a marble machine is do you?" The ninja slowly shook their heads. "Well, you'll see soon enough." Quinn rubbed her hands together in anticipation.

As soon as the ninja were inside they could only stare at everything. It was all old news to Quinn, but she tried to match their excited expressions so they wouldn't feel awkward.

"I know you all want to see something different and you'll see more if we split up. So to avoid mass confusion just get in you groups from yesterday-oh snap!" Quinn realized what groups from yesterday would mean as soon as she said it, but it was too late to take it back without sounding like she was trying to manipulate something. She swore she was going to pick the next groups herself, leaving nothing to chance.

Soon she was alone with Gaara again.

"So what do you want to see?" she asked nervously, but trying not to show it. While she was scared stiff of Gaara she didn't want him to feel singled out or treated different because of it.

Gaara didn't say anything for what felt like minutes, finally he broke the tense silence. "Can we see the dinosaur?" He asked, almost cautiously like she would say it was a stupid thing to say or something.

"Yeah, sure. Why not? I love the dinosaur," Quinn said babbling with relief. Inside she was thinking, _the dinosaur? Is that all he wants to see?_

Gaara stood silently leaning against the railing staring at the dinosaur. Quinn wished she could do something about there awkward silences, but she couldn't seem to think of anything to say when he was around. He was a conversation killer.

Alright, challenge excepted.

"It's pretty cool isn't it. I used to pretend it was real when I was a kid. I called him Rexy like the dinosaur from Night in the Museum." Quinn smiled and leaned forward over the railing so she could see his face. He looked sideways at her and looked away. He wasn't smiling, but he wasn't pushing her over the railing either so Quinn took that as encouragement. "Your tattoo is a kanji symbol, right? What does it mean?"

Gaara stared into space and the silence stretched out so long Quinn thought he wasn't going to answer. Finally he did.

"Love," he said, staring into space, "it means love."

**Warning, short author's note**

**So that's kind of a cliff hanger. Anyway, I don't own Naruto, or the ninja, or Kakashi, but I do own Quinn and the storyline. Again if you have any cool things for the ninja to do write it up in the review, no idea's a bad idea. And even if you don't have an idea, review and tell me what you think. Do it for Gaara. **

**end short author's note**


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